Money, religiosity, and spiritual well-being: does it impact consumers’ ethical beliefs? Evidence from India

Abstract

This article empirically tests whether the ethical beliefs of young consumers in India are impacted by attitude toward money, religiosity, and spiritual well-being. Data from a sample survey of 426 young consumers in India (240 male and 186 female) were used to test the hypotheses using moderated regression analysis. Results indicate that ethical beliefs of young consumers were not affected by either importance of money, their religiosity, or spiritual well-being but by an interaction of these factors in overall sample. However, a moderating impact of gender was also found. Ethical beliefs were affected by religiosity among male customers and by spiritual well-being among female customers. These results are counterintuitive and differ from previous studies done in developed markets. The implications for managers include redesigning marketing communications to young consumers based on difference in gender when marketing in emerging markets compared to developed markets. Highlighting the gender differences in marketing communications can also help marketers to enhance the customer perceived value in the market offerings, especially in case of ethical goods.